introduction to ethics

NATURAL LAW

ETHICS

The idea that nature (biology) has a way of working that

is best for conscious animals to embrace and follow.

NATURAL LAW & RELIGION

Morality & religion go together: Divine Command Theory one example – But takes Special Revelation to know

Natural Law Morality argues that nature and natural instincts give us direction to live by in how designed or evolved.

Natural law is not based on special divine revelation but on our natural reason and insights into nature and its design

➢Nature implants certain behavioral priorities in animals

➢For example, evolution works by survival of the fittest (genes seek survival) but it also takes self-sacrificial

behavior to save a weaker blood-relative (natural altruism)

NATURAL BEHAVIORS AND THE PROBLEM

OF THE NATURALIST FALLACY

Example: a female Killdeer will pretend to have a broken wing to draw predator away from nest.

Nature designs us for survival and survival takes cooperation.

Hence, Natural Morality or Natural Law is seen in the instinct for self-preservation and species cooperation.

But this view has been criticized as a “naturalistic fallacy” because it leaps from an “is” (descriptive) to an

“ought” (normative) without sufficient justification.

Aristotle and three basic natural inclinations humans have (also essential to evolution) which we ignore at our own peril:

1) The DESIRE for self-preservation: this is a natural inclination that humans share with all living entities

“Biology begins in self-preservation: in entities resisting destruction, combating, at least for a short time, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and passing on their capacity to their

descendants” (Dan Dennett http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/originss.htm)

2) The DESIRE for procreation & protection of offspring: humans share this in common with other animals

3) For humans, the DESIRE to be with others (sociality) & live in ways that are reasonable (other animals share some of this)

NATURAL INCLINATIONS OR THE

“IS” OF NATURE (DESCRIPTIVE)

1) The “is” = living organisms are designed to self-preserve; the

“ought” = act to preserve life beginning with your own.

2) The “is” = living species are designed to procreate & protect

their offspring; the “ought” = act to preserve species

responsibly and care for offspring

3) The “is” = human species are designed to live in community

and cooperation for thriving; the “ought” = act to support

human thriving in community.

SOME NATURAL LAW ETHICS – STEPPING

FROM THE “IS” TO THE “OUGHT”

1) Morality is about human values. If nature gives you life,

doesn’t that give you something to value? As a human being,

what is essential to preserving your life?

2) Evolution means the “survival of the fittest” – Does this “is”

also give a kind of ethic?

3) Evolution also involves “survival of the protecting and

caring” species. Is there a natural instinct for altruism?

4) The human creature is a social animal, meaning s/he cannot

live without the help of others. We are animals designed for

cooperative living. Is there an ethic in this natural instinct?

DOES NATURE GIVE VALUES?

PROBLEMS IN NATURAL LAW

Social Darwinism and Capitalism

➢Social Darwinism follows the mantra of "the strong survive“ to serve racist

and capitalist superiority

➢The ideology was also used by some to oppose social programs designed to

help the disadvantaged.

➢At its worst, Social Darwinism was used as scientific justification (natural

law claims) for the Holocaust.

➢The Nazis claimed that the murder of Jews in WWII was an example of

cleaning out the inferior genetics

SOCIAL DARWINISM & EVIL

Source: http://www.allaboutscience.org/what-is-so

➢Andrew “Carnegie saw the [labor] move toward cooperation …as

‘the destruction of individualism, private property and the law of

accumulation’

➢He “claimed that …capitalism rested on natural & divine laws.

➢In his words: “In the long run wealth only comes to the moral man”

➢He claimed that material prosperity makes the nation “sweeter,

more joyous, more unselfish, more Christ-like”

➢He argued that the best persons to redistribute wealth were the capitalist

millionaires themselves through charities

CAPITALISM AS SOCIAL

DARWINISM

Source: academicamerican.com

Natural Law Ethics have been used by the Catholic

Church to argue against the morality of contraceptives.

Why? How would you answer?

Natural Law Ethics have been used by many to argue

against homosexuality.

Why? How would you answer?

NATURAL LAW, ANTI-

CONTRACEPTION, & ANTI-GAY